The Twenty-Something Series: Planes, trains and autobahns

You might remember that last month I started on a new job - an IT Graduate scheme with an energy company.

Well I'm over a month in now, and I'm loving it. Honestly loving it. The people I work with are great. The other grads are great. The work I'm involved with is great. The atmosphere is great. It's miles away from how I felt about my old job this time last year.

That alone is some big bonus points for my mental health. It's amazing to not have those stress levels I felt around my job last year.

I've been doing a fair bit of travelling for the job to other offices: I'm based in Durham but have gone to Leeds and Birmingham and even Swindon a few times in the past few weeks - and even that, I don't mind so much.

But the big thing I wanted to mention in this post (aside from bragging about my awesome job and how much a love it and how happy I am with it) is that I get to go ABROAD for a project already! 

I'm going to Germany!

Das ist amazing, right?!

I'm working on a project with a team based out in Germany, which will involve me travelling out for a few days at a time around once a month until January.

(Which of course meant buying folding hangers, EU adaptor plugs, a German phrasebook, and a swish new suitcase at the Antler Outlet store - because who needs to pay full price for things? Weirdly, buying the suitcase felt more grown-up than setting up my rent payments did.)

Not gonna lie: I am a little nervous about this, but it's not nerves around travelling or being in a new, strange city. It's just nerves around the fact I'll be meeting and working with a new team and getting involved with a new project. That said, the people I've contacted so far from the team have been really friendly, and the project sounds really cool.

I'm beyond excited about the opportunity to go work in Germany, especially when I'm only, what, seven weeks into this job? It's such an incredible opportunity that when my manager asked if I was interested I was thrilled. 

The team and project will be using English so that's not a worry, but I've been learning German with Duolingo (loving it) and I'm currently 46% fluent after about two weeks of learning, which I'm pretty proud of. I'd like to be able to have some idea of what signs and menus and people say - and ask for ein weiß Wein, bitte. 

(A girl's gotta be able to get some white wine at dinner, right?)

The only drawback about this whole thing is that I'm missing out on a book launch I was psyched to go to... but that's kind of balanced out by the fact that the Christmas markets will be open when I'm there in a couple of months. And I LOVE me a Christmas market.

Oh, and the weather's going to be cooler out in Germany than it has been here, and you know what that means: BEANIE SEASON IS BACK.

I'll let you guys know how it goes...! Bis bald, my dudes.